April 30, 2015 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. For other up-to-the-minute news, check out ITIís Twitter account: @ITINewsBreaks.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), American Library Association (ALA), Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), and seven other organizations launched the Re:create coalition for promoting balanced copyright policy, which includes limitations and exceptions such as fair use and the adoption of new technologies.

“The mission of Re:Create squarely comports with the Constitutional rationale for copyright: ‘to promote the progress of science and useful arts,’” says Deborah Jakubs, ARL’s president. ARL “will work to ensure that copyright law supports this rationale and ensure that the copyright system provides an appropriate balance.”

Springer and the China Computer Federation (CCF) will publish Data Science and Engineering, a new open access (OA) computer science journal that will be available via SpringerOpen. It will allow researchers and industrial practitioners to share original papers that cover topics such as data analysis and processing, data-intensive computing, and techniques and systems for analyzing and managing Big Data.

Data Science and Engineering is the first international computer science journal to be initiated and administered by a Chinese research society. CCF remains responsible for the journal’s editorial content, editorial board, and academic development.

Dow Jones updated Factivawith a series of customer-driven enhancements that help users convert search results into visual representations of data. Factiva’s exclusive premium content can be used to build charts on news data dating from 1985 and to overlay news trend data with company stock price movement (to analyze how news correlates to stock changes), among other options.

Users can share their charts with colleagues using Factiva Newsletters and Factiva Homepages, download them, and add them to presentations.

D&B and Dun & BradstreetCredibility Corp. will form a new division, Dun & Bradstreet Emerging Businesses. It combines Credibility Corp.’s technology and data solutions (as well as its management team and business model) with D&B’s small and medium business assets. This combination of complementary teams is designed to improve how D&B leverages its existing products, develops new products, and incorporates B2B and business contact data into products.

D&B will buy Credibility Corp. for $320 million in cash, with an earn-out of up to $30 million if specific milestones are met by the end of 2018. The transaction is expected to close in May 2015. Jeff Stibel, chairman and CEO of Credibility Corp., will head the new division as vice chairman of D&B.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced Humanities in the Public Square, a grant opportunity designed to “put humanities scholars in direct dialogue with the public on some of the most pressing issues of today.”

The grant of up to $300,000 will be awarded to institutions that develop projects incorporating a public forum, public programs, and the creation and dissemination of educational resources. The initial cycle’s application deadline is June 24, 2015.

SAGE Publications and Corwin(a SAGE company) now offer nearly 2,000 ebooks through Apple’s iBooks, including titles in the business, communication, education, journalism, law, political science, research methods, and psychology fields. Professional development ebooks for K–12 educators are also available.

iOS users can get instant access to these resources and use iBooks to sync bookmarks, notes, highlights, and collections across devices.

“As the educational landscape continues to evolve, SAGE is dedicated to meeting the needs of researchers, instructors, and learners of all types. We are committed to making the expert work of our authors available in formats that fit a variety of user preferences,” says Michele Sordi, VP and editorial director at SAGE.

Gale released a digital, early literacy resource for public libraries. Miss Humblebee’s Academy is designed to help 3- to 6-year-old patrons build foundational literacy skills with hundreds of interactive online and mobile-accessible kindergarten-readiness lessons. The product also provides assessment tools so libraries can measure their impact on early literacy development in their communities.

“Libraries are evolving into institutions of learning and service that have a direct impact on the lives of community members,” says Paul Gazzolo, SVP and general manager of Gale. “By offering a product like Miss Humblebee’s Academy, libraries will play a pivotal role in helping children establish strong literacy skills and preparing them for kindergarten and beyond.”

Hachshara Insurance chose business intelligence software provider InsFocus Systems’ analyst system for its property and casualty division. The actuarial unit will be the primary user of the system in order to study “different P&C reserve and reinsurance actuarial models, insured driving habits and the effect of new automotive technologies on insureds’ behavior.”

“InsFocus executed a quick implementation project, which allowed the company to embed the system in a short time-span, while providing extensive insurance and underwriting information,” says Uri Taiber, InsFocus’ founder and CEO. “The system in Hachshara includes hundreds of insurance measurements and dimensions, based on InsFocus’ insurance data model.”

3M Library Systems and collectionHQ Team Up for Ebook Data Integration

3M Library Systems partnered with collectionHQ so that 3M Cloud Library subscribers can load their 3M ebook circulation data into collectionHQ’s ebook module. This data includes comparative circulation across genres and summaries of popular authors and their top-circulating titles.

“In adding the ability for collectionHQ libraries to analyze their 3M ebook usage data, collectionHQ continues to demonstrate its commitment to being a vendor-neutral analytics platform, providing our customers with solutions that work with any ILS vendor and a growing number of ebook vendor platforms,” says Scott Crawford, collectionHQ’s VP and general manager.

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) rolled out Nature Reviews Disease Primers (NRDP), an online-only, peer-reviewed journal that features a new format for NPG publications—NRDP will contain review articles called Primers that have overviews of diseases and disorders, as well as an illustrated summary (PrimeView) alongside each article.

NRDP will cover a variety of medical conditions and health-related topics, such as aging. Primers will describe all aspects of conditions (epidemiology, disease mechanisms, diagnosis, and treatment) and include an Outlook section for discussion about the open research questions in the field.